It Started with a Dare
by akayuki-rin
Summary: He was Seigaku's prodigy, popular and revered. She was just another girl, introverted and plain. What had been an innocent challenge changed the lives of these two strangers forever. FujiOC
1. The Dare

**Disclaimer:** The original plot and story of PoT rightfully and legally belongs to Konomi Takeshi-sensei. This disclaimer applies to all chapters, by the way.

**Author's Notes:** Greetings. After reading fanfictions for god-knows-how-long, I finally decided to write one of my own. As a novice writer, I still have a lot to learn and would really appreciate it if readers would review my story.

_This_ - refers to thoughts or flashbacks.

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Dare**

"I like you."

Three words. Three very simple words that barely carried any meaning to them (to the speaker, at the very least). That was all. But little did Minamizawa Nagi know that those very three words she uttered would spark off a chain of events that would change her life forever.

* * *

"KYAAAHH!! FUJI-SAMA!! KIKUMARU-SAMA!!"

The classroom during lunch break was almost never empty, thanks to the bunch of hormone-ridden fangirls that never failed to pour through the doors everyday to visit their most adored idols. The noise generated by all the high-pitched squealing was so loud, it could put even a dozen pens of pigs to shame. The classroom of 3-6 was definitely not, by any standard, the best of study environments.

Yet, sitting in the far corner of the classroom, away from the crowd and racket, sat a bespectacled girl, quietly reading a thick book. Unperturbed by the noise, she flipped page after page, calmly reading through the book until the end, after which she closed the book and finally left the classroom.

"Nagi-chan, you're really amazing, you know?"

The bespectacled girl looked up from her bento. "How?"

"Well," Kasuragi Misaki continued, "you're always able to study and do all sorts of other things in class even though it's always so noisy in there."

"She's got her earphones plugged on three-quarters of the time, you know," remarked Umezaki Hayate. "Of course the noise can't get to her."

"But still–"

"Alright, enough of that. Game's underway." said Hayate, cutting Misaki off. The latter pouted and flipped her long mahogany hair, an action she regularly did when someone or something displeased her.

Hayate placed a bottle in the middle of the circle formed by the three girls. Like many girls of their age, the game of 'Truth or Dare' formed a part of their staple lunch activity. The other two sighed and continued to eat their lunch as their green-haired friend fumbled around with the stubborn bottle that was refusing to stay in place.

Finishing the last bit of her lunch, Nagi said, "I thought you were sick of this already?"

At the question, Hayate instantly broke into a smirk. "Today's different," she said, "we're playing 'Dare or Dare'."

There was a pause as it took a while for the statement to sink in. When it had fully registered itself in the brains of the two, it was already too late.

Looking at the spinning object, the three girls kept their eyes fixed on it as it slowly came to a stop.

* * *

Kikumaru Eiji let out a sigh of relief as the last of the fangirls cleared out of the classroom.

"They're finally gone…" Kikumaru said as he slumped down his chair.

Fuji chuckled. "Was it that tiring?"

The redhead shot him a look and pouted. "You're one to talk. Your fans were making so much noise."

"Yours were too."

"At least they weren't as noisy as yours," Kikumaru remarked. "Can't you tell them to tone it down a bit?"

"You know I have as much control over them as Taka-san has over his power," Fuji stated matter-of-fact-ly.

The acrobatic tennis player sighed and sank further down his seat. Then, all of a sudden, an idea hit him. He jumped out of his seat enthusiastically as the glucose level in his body surged back to its original sugar high level.

"That's it! Fuji, why don't you get yourself a girlfriend? That'll be bound to stop them." exclaimed the redhead excitedly.

Fuji said nothing and continued smiling. Being the genius that he was, he had already considered that option long ago. Ever since the tennis player entered his second year, he had came to be more and more in the spotlight and, with his drool-worthy looks and pro-like tennis skills, commanded a formidable legion of fangirls, whose numbers proliferated with his every achievement on the courts. Though not entirely averse to the attention, the tensai was well aware that his fangirls –their ear-piercing squealing, to be exact– were a distraction for the club members, not to mention a huge headache for his friends. He'd once considered all the possible solutions to that problem, with only the aforementioned as the only long-term one. The only problem was how to go about with it, without, needless to say, the participation of his overly helpful teammates. And since he did not have many suitable female friends he could turn to to be his 'scapegoat', he needed to find an alternative way to solve his problem.

The brunette thought for a moment. There were not many alternatives, and even lesser feasible ones (he'd considered declaring himself homosexual but decided that that would do considerable harm to his reputation, not to mention sour the relationship with his teammates). The only possible alternative, he concluded, was to get one of the numerous girls who confessed to him to be his 'stand-in'.

Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch break and effectively ending the conversation.

"We'll see…" Fuji said as he watched the lunch crowd disperse.

* * *

**During class…**

That it was the last lesson of the day was obvious. Everyone was exceptionally fidgety, squirming about in their seats, anxiously counting down the last thirty minutes to the bell. Everyone was busy doing their own things to while the time away while the teacher was busy droning on and on about something or the other.

Nagi stared at the whiteboard. Nope, she wasn't staring at the teacher's handwriting and trying to figure out what the numbers and words meant. She was blanking out, plain and simple.

"_Confess to Fuji-kun."_

_Nagi stared at her green-headed friend. "What?"_

"_Confess to Fuji-kun," Hayate repeated. "And ask him to go out with you."_

_Though no sophisticated vocabulary was used in the sentence, the context in which it was delivered made it a truly incomprehensible statement._

"_I beg your pardon?" Nagi asked again._

" ' _I. Like. You. Please. Go. Out. With. Me.' " said Hayate, stressing on each word. "Tell that to Fuji-kun."_

"_You're out of your mind." The former remarked as she packed her things._

"_Oh, come on! It's only a dare," the latter urged. "It's not like you'd lose anything from saying it."_

My pride. _thought Nagi as she ignored her friend._

_Hayate 'hmph'-ed and folded her arms across her chest. "Whatever it is, you're doing it after school and that's final! We'll be watching to ensure that you complete the dare before going home. Remember that." _

The brunette let out a sigh. Just then, a crumpled piece of paper landed on her table.

Opening the note, it read: 'Don't forget! After school!'

With another longer sigh, she folded the note and slipped it into her pocket. There was no other way out of the predicament except to face it head on.

Then, almost on cue, the bell rang.

Students immediately filed out of the classroom, leaving the room virtually empty, save a few people who were packing their things.

From the corner of her eye, Nagi looked over to the other end of the classroom where Fuji's seat was. The tennis player was taking his time keeping his things while talking to his hyper redheaded friend.

Nagi contemplated getting rid of Kikumaru before calling out to Fuji but decided against it to prevent the inquisitive lad from asking unnecessary questions.

Adjusting her glasses, Nagi quickly stroded over to where the two were standing.

In the most polite voice she could muster, Nagi said, "Excuse me, Fuji-san,"

The said boy turned around. Though only for a moment, surprise was evident on his face. "Yes, Minamizawa-san?"

_Whoa. He actually remembered my name…_thought an incredulous Nagi. "May I have a word with you?"

Fuji had a puzzled look on his face. _With me?_ "Sorry, but we have to go to tennis practice right now."

"That's right, nya," Kikumaru interrupted. "Tezuka-buchou's going to give us laps if we get to practice late."

_Harsh…_ "I assure you it would only take a short while."

"Well," Fuji thought for a moment. "Okay then. What is it?"

"It's…" Nagi glanced around. Despite that the bell had rang five minutes ago, there were still a considerable number of people in the classroom, namely the unlucky ones on cleanliness duty, and all their attention seemed to have been riveted onto them as evident from the stares and whispers.

"May we take this conversation to some other place?" Nagi asked the tensai quietly.

"Sure," Fuji agreed.

The two then left the classroom, leaving behind a puzzled Kikumaru and a certain duo of smirking girls.

* * *

Fuji asked as the pair were walking down the corridor, "Are you in any extra-curricular, Minamizawa-san?"

"H-huh?" Nagi stuttered. The pair had been walking in complete silence for a while and the random question that came out of the blue threw her off balance.

"Are you in any extra-curricular activity?" Fuji repeated with a smile.

"Um, the Swimming Club." The girl answered, pushing her spectacles up the bridge of her nose. _Why this all of a sudden?_

"I see," As though he read her mind, Fuji continued, "Pardon me but you seem to be very free after school."

Nagi felt her eyebrow twitch. _I'm about the LAST person to be free in this entire school!_

"I see…" she trailed off.

The conversation ended there and the duo continued in silence again. Soon, they were out of the school building and facing each other in a secluded spot in a ring of trees near the back of the school.

"So," Fuji began. "What is it you want to talk about?"

_Drat._ Nagi shifted uncomfortably. She could feel her heart palpitating frantically in her chest. The girl looked around for some sort of distraction by unfortunately found none, save a certain bush that was fidgeting around.

"Erm… I… li…li…" Nagi hesitated.

Truth to be told, the girl actually found Fuji quite attractive. Looking at the tensai up close, she could understand why Hayate had been so obsessed with him. With his bishounen looks and gentle demeanor, he looked like a character straight out of the pages of one of the many shoujo mangas stored in her manga-maniac-friend's room.

"Is there something on my face, Minamizawa-san?" a gentle voice asked.

Nagi snapped out of her reverie. "H-huh? Yes? Uh… I mean, no, there's nothing." Realizing that she had been staring, she quickly looked down, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"Hmm?" Fuji took a few steps forward. "Are you okay?"

"Err… Yeah, I'm fine." Nagi replied.

* * *

**Meanwhile, behind a certain bush…**

"Ooooohh, WHAT is that girl doing??!!" Hayate hissed.

"Shh." Misaki hushed her fuming companion. "They'll find out."

"Seriously," the green-headed girl folded her arms in displeasure. "It's just a confession, just spit out the words and she'll be over and done with it already."

"Wouldn't you be the same if you were in her shoes?" Misaki started. "And besides, telling her to confess to someone she doesn't even know is going to take some guts."

"Oh puh-lease, I'm over Fuji-kun already," Hayate said as she tossed her hair. "And isn't that girl a total skeptic about romance? Surely, it can't be that hard."

"Why'd you want her to do this anyway?"

Hayate slowly turned to face her clueless friend. As she did, a mischievous smirk formed on her lips.

"Because I want to see her embarrass herself."

* * *

_Damn. What am I doing?_ Nagi internally berated herself.

All the while, she had been giving Fuji hesitant answers and shaky replies. Though she did not have any romantic feelings for the tensai, the thought of lying appealed to her as much as a pile of poop. And the fact that she had never successfully lied to anyone in her life before made her extremely nervous.

Looking at Fuji, she realized that all her preparation (she'd gone through all the possible ways of confessing while they were making their way down) was in vain. The very fact that she was about to lie to one of the smartest people in the school sent a million butterflies aflutter in her stomach.

_Well, better to get it over and done with first. _Nagi firmed her resolve and took in a deep breath. Bracing herself for the greatest embarrassment in her fourteen years of life, she said,

"I like you, Fuji-san. Please go out with me."

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I know and I don't need telling twice: This is one crappy beginning. I sort of wrote this across a few days so I'm not exactly sure whether it flows or not... (I re-read it a few times but it still feels kinda inadequate...) So bring on the flamethrowers! I'm also currently looking for a beta-reader to help me... If anyone out there who is willing, has enough free time to spare, and has enough patience to tolerate my horrendous writing and even more fantastical ability to forget deadlines (kidding), please PM me.

Once again, please read and review. Thank you very much. -bows-

-Rin


	2. Dawn of Hell

**Chapter 2: The Dawn of Hell**

"I like you, Fuji-san. Please go out with me."

The words that the girl uttered took the tensai by surprise. He'd considered this situation when Nagi requested taking the conversation 'to some other place' but had put it pretty far down his list of possibilities. Because the girl hardly ever interacted with him and showed no interest in boys whatsoever, he found little reason for her to be attracted to him. Soon though, he realized that that wasn't actually the case, as the girl was speaking in monotone.

"I'm so–" The tensai deduced that the girl was probably 'Dare'-ed into this by someone and got ready to reject her when a thought occurred to him.

"_Why don't you get yourself a girlfriend? That'll be bound to stop them."_

That was what his teammate had told him. And indeed, it was pretty much long term solution to his fangirl problem. Fuji took a look at the girl standing before him. She looked plain; with typical straight brown hair and purple eyes, that was certain. But she was different. Nagi did not swoon or go 'kyah, kyah' in his presence; she didn't look like the type to fangirl or gossip and was very reserved. Most importantly, she had absolutely zero interest in the tensai – he'd inferred this from her completely monotonous confession.

In short, she was the perfect candidate to be his 'stand-in girlfriend' – one with no strings attached.

All this he processed in the one-second lag time between his half-articulated rejection and his other reply.

"Sure."

* * *

_I'm sooo dead._

That was the first thought that occurred to Nagi as she finished her half-baked confession.

Her very blatant lie could not possibly get anymore obvious, she thought. And if Fuji Shuusuke was the sadist rumours said he was, she was definitely not going to get away with her little crime that easily. If the way she'd fidgeted and looked around wasn't obvious enough, her monotonous voice would definitely give her away.

One thing was for sure – she would never have a future in acting.

"Sure."

Then again, maybe she did.

Caught like a deer in headlights, Nagi stared at the other brunette as he stood there before her, smiling away as he always did.

_What…did he just say?_

"Excuse me?" was all she could say.

Fuji chuckled. "I said, sure."

"Uh…" Nagi struggled to catch up with the tensai's train of thought. She was sure she had been found out, but the reply wasn't exactly anywhere along or near the lines of what she was expecting, in fact, it never even occurred to her that he would give her a positive reply.

"You don't mean…?"

Fuji smiled. "Yes, I'm fine with us going out."

Nagi's jaw literally dropped. With the facts shoved right in her face, there was nothing else she could say.

"WWWWWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTT???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

The sudden outburst shocked everyone within hearing range.

Nagi whipped around. Hayate and Misaki soon came into view. The former was standing with her eyes wide as saucers and jaw agape while the latter was sitting on the ground, probably sent sprawling by the outburst of the former. Both of them had emerged from the fidgeting bush.

Fuji was not the least bit surprised by the duo's entrance. _Figures,_ he thought. "Good afternoon, Kasuragi-san, Umezaki-san." He greeted.

Upon hearing the lad's voice, Nagi immediately snapped out of her previous shock.

"What are you two doing here– wait, that's not the point…" she turned to face the boy. "Fuji-san, are you sure? I mean, that was just a joke."

"Oh? You'd joke about your feelings? I'd never thought of you as such a person, Minamizawa-san." Fuji replied eloquently.

"No, that's not what I meant… I mean, I don't like you in THAT way," said Nagi. His reply had totally thrown her off balance as she struggled to figure out how things had turned out.

"Well," Fuji continued. He wasn't about to let a perfect opportunity to solve his problems slip away that easily. "We could always work that around or out, right?"

"Ah… Th–…Uh…" Nagi was speechless. There was no way she could retort that one, not when her brain was in malfunction mode.

Fuji chuckled again. The reactions the girl had was classic. She had totally lost her cool and was struggling to retort his replies. Yes, Fuji Shuusuke had officially gone into sadist mode, and he was hell bent on making his poor victim suffer till the end. Lying to Fuji Shuusuke had a price to pay, and it isn't going to be cheap.

Seeing the girl's lack of reply, the tensai decided to let his victim off for the day. Checking his watch, he said, "Well then, I have tennis practice now. So, if you'll excuse me."

He gracefully strode his way off, feeling satisfied with himself for having found a wonderful toy to play with.

Giving Nagi a last glance, he said, "See you tomorrow, Nagi-chan."

* * *

"Are you okay, Nagi-chan?"

Nagi looked up in surprise. "Y-yes?"

The red-haired woman sat down with a sigh. "What's wrong with you? You've been spacing out all day."

"It's…err…nothing… Whoa!" The young girl was caught by surprise again as a strong hand caught her by her forehead and turned her around.

"No fever as far as I can tell," said a tall young man.

Nagi sighed and pushed the man's hand away. "I'm fine, Takaya-senpai."

"Nope, you're not," Takaya contradicted. "You've been wiping that table for the past ten minutes. Normally, you'd be done in three."

Nagi turned and looked at the said object. The glass table had become so reflective, she could see the reflection of her glasses with a reflection of a table in it. She looked at the red-haired lady, whose expression clearly said that she was culprit.

Nagi looked down in remorse. "I'm sorry."

"We're not asking you to apologise. We just want to know what's wrong. Did something happen in school?" The woman asked, her voice filled with concern.

"Kind of…" Nagi said as she unconsciously wiped the table.

Takaya raised both his hands and sighed. "I'm washing my hands off this. You talk to her, Shizuka."

Shizuka raised her hand in an 'OK' sign. She then grabbed Nagi by her wrist and said, "Stop wiping. Come with me."

Without waiting for the girl's reply, her senior dragged her off.

"Okay," Shizuka began as she seated herself on one of the chairs in the changing room. "Spit it out."

Nagi gave her senior a confused look. "Spit what out?"

The woman shook her head incredulously and rubbed her temples. _The girl's lost her mind._

"Nagi," she started.

"Yes?"

Shizuka stood up and closed the distance between her junior and her. Placing her hands on both of the girl's shoulders, she looked seriously into Nagi's purple eyes.

"Go home and get a good sleep."

Nagi blinked a few times. Then she sighed, "I said I'm fine–"

"No, you're not," Shizuka cut the former off sharply. "You look fine but you're not. You've been very distracted all day. Go home, blank out, think things through, get them sorted out – do whatever you want, as long as you rest up and return to normal by tomorrow."

The fourteen-year-old shook her head. "You're nuts."

"**You're** nuts."

"I'm–"

Just then, the door slammed open with a loud bang.

"KORA! What do you think you're doing slacking off here??!" a bespectacled, middle-aged woman shouted. "You, get back to work. You, go home."

"But, manager–" Nagi protested.

"I said, you, go home." The intimidating woman repeated sternly, effectively shutting the girl up. "If you're going to be spacing out all day, you might as well have stayed at home. And you Shizuka, get back to work. The customers are waiting."

Shizuka willingly obliged. "Yes, ma'am."

As the redhead exited the room, the manager of the café looked back at Nagi. "Well?"

Nagi let out a long sigh. "I'll leave as soon as I change out, manager."

* * *

**The next day… **

Nagi let out a long sigh as she trudged her way to school.

Fuji's extremely unexpected response had left her puzzled and confused, which kept her awake all night trying to figure out the sadist's intentions, with little success. The only conclusion she had come to was that whatever he had in mind, it was going to throw into a boiling pot of hot soup. Having not slept a wink the night before, she had to drag herself out of bed in the morning. Her lethargy even affected her appetite and work – her stomach flipped even though her mother made her favourite omelete for breakfast and she nearly crashed into a tree while delivering newspapers that morning.

The phrase 'dead tired' would be a very apt summary of her situation.

A flash of mahogany caught her eye as Nagi entered the school building. Looking up, she saw smiling Misaki waiting beside her shoe locker.

"Good morning, Nagi-chan." She greeted cheerfully.

Not wanting her best friend to worry, Nagi mustered up as much enthusiasm as she could to return the greeting. "Morning, Misaki-chan."

"Are you okay?" Misaki asked concernedly. Apparently the enthusiasm was not enough to hide her lethargy. "You don't sound so good."

"Insomnia…" was the best answer Nagi could give.

"Fuji-san's reply was quite a shock, huh." Misaki said as the two friends made their way to their classroom.

Nagi retorted. "More like inconceivable and absurd."

Misaki let out a small laugh. "Looks like you're not all that shaken up. Everyone's acting real strange today, I wonder what's wrong?" she noted.

Indeed, unlike the usual loud chatter, everyone along the corridor was engaging in whispered conversations. Many also kept shooting glances in their direction as the duo walked by, some envious and others plain murderous.

"I think I know why…" Nagi said quietly. It was going to be a long day, if the number of murderous glares she received was any indication.

* * *

"Minamizawa-san, is it true you're going out with Fuji-kun?" a random girl suddenly popped out of nowhere and asked.

_53._ Nagi mentally noted. All day, or rather, half the day, through, she had been asked the same question in almost exactly the same manner by more than fifty people. And they were **all** FEMALE. The fact that less than twenty-four hours had passed since that fateful little confession incident really did say something about the school's gossip system.

With another sigh, Nagi repeated the answer she had given to the fifty-two other girls. "No."

The senior looked unconvinced. "But Kujiwara-san said–"

Nagi cut the girl off. "I'm not going out with Fuji Shuusuke. Nothing more, nothing less."

Finishing her sentence, she immediately walked off.

"Wait a minute, Nagi-chan." Misaki called as she ran to catch up with the said girl.

Nagi did not slow down. She had little intention to, even if it her best friend who requested it, not when the fire escape stairwell was only a few metres away. The brunette was only too desperate to get away from all the chaos.

But as everyone knows, Lady Luck is a peculiar woman. The more you want her to smile, the more she'll frown.

In her attempt to get away, Nagi had failed to remember that there was a flight of stairs leading to the fire escape stairwell. Nagi squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the impact as she literally flew down the stairs (the motion from her walking had propelled her off the ground)…

…only to be caught mid-fall by a strong arm. Opening her eyes, she saw many people staring at her. She could feel a lean and muscular arm holding onto her by her waist, keeping her from falling the rest of the way down.

Then, a soft velvety voice asked, "Are you okay, Nagi-chan?"

A sense of dread overcame the young girl as her purple eyes followed the stares of the audience to her right.

Standing there, in all his glory, was the very personification of her personal doom – the angel from hell, Fuji Shuusuke.

"Nagi-chan?" Fuji looked concernedly at the fellow brunette, his eyes open, revealing his blue eyes to his female companion.

To most girls, to be gazed upon by the usually concealed eyes of the tensai would send them swooning at their vivid blue-ness and depth. To Nagi however, it was as though gazing into the very pits of hells. The aura of mystery that surrounded the blue orbs were, to her, a sadistic aura of a devil hungry for fresh blood; the single black pupil set in the sea of blue was a black hole, ready to suck her into eternal oblivion. And his eyes had depth to them all right, the depths of boundless and endless torture that awaited her, torture that would make all eighteen levels of Hell combined seem like getting stung by a mosquito.

It was, as quoted from the Pang Brothers, 'The Eye'.

"Nagi-chan?" repeated Fuji.

Nagi, finally realizing the awkward situation they were in, steadied herself before pushing the tennis player's arm away.

"I'm fine, thank you." she said, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice, brushing herself and smoothing out her blouse.

The brunette smiled. "I see… That's good news."

"Did you hear that?"

"He called her by her first name!"

"So the rumours were true?"

"No way!"

The whispers had started again as the witnesses to the incident swarmed together in their small groups and began analyzing what had just taken place.

"Nagi-chan, are you alright?" The question came from Misaki this time.

"More or less…" Nagi trailed off.

"It's best to keep your eyes open while running." Fuji remarked.

The bespectacled girl shot him a glare. "That coming from someone who walks around with his eyes closed, how convincing." She said sarcarstically.

"I am a special case," the tensai answered.

_You are a nutcase. _Nagi mentally commented. Not that it'd ever make it past her larynx though, the girl would choose stomaching insults over withstanding fangirl attacks any day –judging form the dirty looks the girls were throwing her– and her bosses certainly did not appreciate their employee turning up battered and bruised for work.

"Hoi? Fujiko-chan! And Nagi-chan too! What are you guys doing here?"

Nagi felt her eyebrow twitch. _Nagi-chan?_

The two in question turned around and saw the bouncing redhead running towards them, with a tall, bespectacled male and another helmet-headed senior following close behind.

"Eiji, Oishi and Inui," the tensai called to them.

"Good afternoon, Kikumaru-kun, Oishi-kun, Inui-san." Misaki said to the trio.

"Good day, Kikumaru-san, Oishi-san, Inui-san." greeted Nagi with a bow.

"Good afternoon, nya! Nagi-chan, you don't need to be so polite, you know. And just 'Eiji' will do, nya!" Kikumaru rambled.

Nagi cleared her throat. "Pardon my impudence, but I do believe we have yet to be properly acquainted…"

"Nya? There's no need for that, right? After all, you're Fujiko-chan's girlfriend, which makes you our friend!" the acrobat finished with a grin.

"Eiji/Kikumaru-kun!" the helmet-head, Oishi, and Misaki reprimanded.

The whispers, fueled by Kikumaru's all-too-innocent comment, got even louder.

"Did you hear that?"

"Kikumaru-sama said she's Fuji-sama's girlfriend!!"

"Impossible!"

While the whispers were clearly of audible volume, the redhead apparently failed to catch on their meaning.

"What, Oishi?" Kikumaru continued. "She is Fujiko-chan's girlfriend right?"

"It's not that. You shouldn't be saying it so loud here. It's going to embarrass Minamizawa-san." Said the mother-hen vice captain.

_What you're saying is as good as adding fuel to the fire though…_ Nagi mentally remarked.

As if what his doubles partner had said was not clear enough, the clueless redhead added, "Nya, what's wrong with it? Fuji already said it himself this morning."

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Everyone, save the regulars, Nagi and Misaki, exclaimed in shock.

"Kikumaru-sama, is that true??!"

"Fuji-sama!! Please say it's not!!!"

Everyone looked with anticipation at the tensai. Nagi slowly turned to face him. She could hear the death bells tolling when she saw his expression.

His message to her, and the others, was clear as day: Sorry to burst your bubble.

Wrapping an arm around the said girl's waist, he pulled her closer and declared, "Yes, it's true. Nagi-chan and I are going out."

The reaction triggered by the declaration was massive. Inui cackled and scribbled frantically on a green notebook that he fished out of thin air; Eiji was busy making cat-calls and 'whoo-hoo's; Oishi was desperately trying to instill reason in his doubles partner and Misaki just stood rooted to the spot, shocked into absolute silence and stillness by the bold declaration.

Meanwhile, it was chaos everywhere else. Some guys joined in Kikumaru with the cat-call-ing while others huddled back into their small groups to discuss the incredulity of the situation. Many girls ran off with tears in their eyes while some others fainted on the spot.

Then, there were also the ones who shot killer glances at her. If they were murderous before, they're on a complete rampage for blood now. If looks could kill, Nagi would have been killed, dismembered, cooked, broiled and had her pitiful remains fed to piranhas in the Amazon River by now.

Nagi felt shivers down her spine. The declaration of Fuji had officially signaled it.

It was the arrival of Pandemonium.

Hell had begun.

* * *

**Author's notes:** I'm currently suffering from severe lack of sleep…(been up the whole night typing this) and I've got tuition due in another five hours and thirty-five minutes.

Anyway, I think this chapter is an improvement from my previous one, despite it still being kinda crappy… I guess I'm just too full of crap to produce anything else…

Side notes:

The Pang brothers are the directors for the movie, 'The Eye' and all its sequels. (Please note that I'm talking about the original movie in 2002 here, not the Hollywood or the Indian one.)

The larynx is colloquially known as the voice box.

'Good day' is 'Go-ki-gen-you' (ごきげんよう) in Japanese and is considered a very polite/ladylike way of greeting people.

Piranhas are omnivorous (yes, you heard right, they're OMNIVOROUS) freshwater fish found only in the Amazon Basin. That they can kill and eat a human alive is a myth, though. You'd have to chop up their food for them before they'd be able to eat it down to its bones. Credits to Wikipedia for this information.

Please read and review! All reviews are appreciated, flames and criticisms are all welcome.

-Rin

* * *


	3. Misunderstandings and Realizations

**Author's Notes:**

-THIS- – Sounds/actions.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Misunderstandings and Realizations**

-TWITCH-

The bespectacled girl pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose as she tried to focus on the lesson.

-SMACK-

A crumpled ball of paper landed on the floor by the girl's chair after bouncing off her head. Again.

Nagi let out an irritated sigh and bent to pick up the insolent object. She un-crumpled the note, revealing a mess of scribbles and scrawls, made almost illegible by all the overwriting and folds.

Despite the messy and foul-looking handwriting, the message conveyed was clear. Highlighted in bright red and written in capitalized and bolded font on the very top of the note were four words: **GET AWAY FROM FUJI-SAMA!!!!!!!!!!!**

Nagi sighed a long sigh before re-crumpling the paper and throwing the offensive item into the paper bin. It was a good thing her seat was at the very corner of the classroom – both the wastepaper and the recycling basket were within an arm's length's distance.

In the one hour of the Math lesson, Nagi had been made a victim for target practice by the girls of the class. Papers of all shapes, sizes and colours had been flying her way at thirty second intervals, mostly landing on her head with pinpoint accuracy that could put Oishi's famous Moon Volley to shame.

It was a very big waste of good resources that could otherwise be put to very much better use, the brunette thought. And as to why the teacher, who happened to be in charge of the Environment Protection Research Society, would tolerate such preposterous acts of environment non-conservation, as well as obvious showing of inattentiveness, remained a total mystery to the young girl.

Looking at both baskets which were overflowing with identical crumpled notes, Nagi was quite sure their class would be able to win the weekly inter-class recycling competition that week. Heck, if the situation continued, they'd be owning the rest of the school till graduation.

"_Yes, it's true. Nagi-chan and I are going out."_

_Fuji Shuusuke, you crazy fool!_ Nagi inwardly cussed. Through her peripheral vision, she could see the said boy staring out of the window with his head propped up on his arm. Though the smile plastered on his face was the same as the one he wore every other day, it was particularly offensive to Nagi at that very moment.

"_Yes, it's true. Nagi-chan and I are going out."_

The infuriating statement replayed itself in her head like a record set on eternal repetition mode.

For a girl who usually has no trouble figuring out the thoughts of others, the statement had presented her with a truly perplexing puzzle to solve.

Try as she might, Nagi simply could not figure what Fuji Shuusuke needed or even wanted a girlfriend for, not to mention one that was decided in such a haphazard way on the fly. He had made it very clear before that his priority in life for now was tennis, and that he wasn't interested in girls; so why now and why her?

"Minamizawa-kun."

Nagi looked up in surprise. Everyone's attention had been riveted onto her as the teacher stared straight at her.

"What is that pile of papers doing under your desk?" Yoruzuya-sensei growled.

Nagi blinked a few times then looked down. Apparently, the girls had decided to switch strategies and settled for the 'get-target-into-trouble-with-the-teacher' plan, for right at her feet was an obscenely large of crumpled papers, colourfully messy and aligned perfectly with the two side legs of her table.

Not wanting to argue with the teacher, Nagi settled for the fastest way out. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Well, you'd better be," Yoruzuya-sensei continued. "The Earth has limited resources and we should be doing our best to preserve them for our own and the future generation's sakes. Global warming has been worsening and some studies have even shown that a rise of a mere six degrees in the average global temperature could result in the extinction of the human race and turn the Earth into a barren wasteland. You, as the future masters of our country, also have to do your part in conserving our environment. Even as of now, with all our efforts in environmental conservation, our country is still ranked the 37th in the world for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions per capita…"

Completely absorbed in his field of specialization, the students looked on as Yoruzuya-sensei drifted off into his own little world, rambling on and on with his pro-environmentalist propaganda.

Seeing that the lesson was not going to be resumed anytime soon, the students began doing their own things.

Nagi was not about to let such a golden opportunity go to waste. Ripping a page out of her notebook, she scribbled a note to the teacher and threw it onto his table. Then, with a swift movement, she evaded an oncoming face-shot, side-stepped out of the classroom and made a headlong sprint for the furthest toilet on the top floor of the school building. Target practice was resuming, and having been stuck in a cramped and stuffy classroom for the past forty-five minutes, the aimers could probably make use of a little exercise with a moving target.

* * *

Nagi checked her watch for the nth time. Two minutes and twenty-five seconds had passed since the lunch bell rang and no one had come for her blood, yet.

Nagi took off her spectacles and sighed for the hundredth time. She had to figure out a way out of the situation a certain tennis prodigy had put her in. And fast.

Taking advantage of the quietness in the empty toilet, she slowly analyzed her situation.

Fuji had declared them a couple in front of nearly half the population of third years. And judging by the speed her little confession incident got around, half the school would probably have been made aware of the earlier episode by the end of lunch, which meant that she had little chance of escaping from the vast population of Fuji's fangirls that spanned across all three levels.

This left with only two options: the first is to ditch school till the incident dies down, or to just brave her way through the scorching rage of the fangirls. While the former appealed to her more, Nagi would rather endure bodily harm than to permit slipshod academic performance, which meant that the former choice would be eliminated by default.

Dodging fangirl attacks was no small task to perform, and if Fuji was going to make her do it, he'd better have a damn good reason for it.

Having made up her mind, Nagi put her glasses back on and smoothed out her uniform before slowly making her way out of the toilet.

What greeted her when she opened the door, however, was quite unexpected.

"Good day, Minamizawa-san."

Nagi's heart skipped a beat.

There, standing right before her, was Takashima Yuna, the school's most beautiful girl.

"G-good day to you too, Takashima-san," Nagi stuttered, desperately trying to hide the blush that was threatening to stain her cheeks. "Can I help you with anything?"

"Why, yes," The tall beauty flipped her long orange hair. "I'd actually like to have a word with you. Would you mind coming to the roof with us?" asked the girl.

_Us? _Nagi cocked her head to the side, puzzled. It was only then, when the towering female's head was out of her line of vision, that the brunette saw the full situation. A few feet behind Takashima, leaning against the wall, were a group of girls, all burning with rage. The cause of their extreme displeasure instantly became apparent when they glared daggers at Nagi as she came into their view.

A sense of foreboding immediately overcame her. _Uh-oh._

"Minamizawa-san?" a sweet voice called.

"H-huh? Oh, y-yes…" Nagi answered shakily. _This is not gonna be good…_

Minamizawa Nagi was undoubtedly in a very **big** pot of hot soup. And there was little way she was going to get out of this one, not with six girls watching and fanning the already raging fire.

* * *

Fuji was utterly pleased with himself.

Looking on at the ruckus the girls were causing in the classroom, he could not help but feel amused by the fact that his little declaration, done totally on a passing whim, would be able to cause such uproar.

"Fuji-sama, did she force you to do this??!!"

"Fuji-sama, had she done anything bad to you??!!"

The fangirls asked frantically as they clamored around their idol.

Fuji merely returned them an enigmatic smile. "Saa…"

"FUJI-SAMAAAAA!!!!!!!!"

The honey-haired boy contemplated getting out of the classroom and looked around for an excuse; the surging noise levels were decidedly not good for his hearing, and he most certainly did not want to let his tennis career die such an early death (yup, hearing is important in tennis, if you want to play with your eyes closed), not to mention Kikumaru was not around to distract the screaming females.

Luck came in the form of Inui as Fuji spotted the data man outside his classroom. As soon as he saw the tensai look in his direction, the tall youth motioned for him to come out, to which the latter gladly complied.

"Afternoon, Inui. Something's up?"

"Actually," the data man started, "I was going to ask you something along the lines of those girls."

Fuji did not telling twice. He nodded his head and waited while the bespectacled tennis player fished out his handy-dandy notebook.

"I currently have fifteen conclusions to that particular question," said the dark-haired lad, "but judging from the situation just now, I have narrowed the options down to six; one more likely than the other five."

Fuji's smile grew wider. "And that is?"

Inui adjusted his spectacles, causing them to give off his usual I-have-the-answer glint. "You're trying to get rid of your fans."

_As expected of Inui. _Fuji thought. "What proof do you have?"

"The number of fans in your classroom has decreased by one percent," the data man stated, referencing to his data. "And judging by the absence of Minamizawa-san since the start of lunch, there is a seventy-five percent chance that they're with her right now, trying to fish a reason for your 'going out' from her. But in truth, your going out with her is nothing more than a scam to divert your fans' attention away from you so that they would not get in the way of your personal life and tennis training. If the situation continues, the fan count will undeniably drop to an all-time low of twenty percent, which would be relatively harmless due to their small number and hence conveniently fulfilling the aforementioned circumstances."

"Quite logical," commented the genius.

"I do have one more question," Inui added.

Fuji nodded.

"Why Minamizawa of all people?"

The brunette gave the tall lad a bemused smile. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," the data man referred back to his data again. "She isn't exactly the best candidate for the role."

Fuji raised his eyebrows slightly. "Oh?"

Taking it as a cue to continue with his analysis, Inui started, "Firstly, her lack of a compatible appearance and character is a definite minus." Seeing that the tensai wasn't saying anything, he continued, "Secondly, you have never talked with each other for more than three minutes since freshman year, which gives your fans even more reason to deny her. Lastly, there is great disparity in terms of achievements and popularity between the two of you, which would earn her quite a bit of disapproval from all around."

A pregnant silence enveloped the duo as the data man finished his analysis.

"So," Fuji began after the short pause. "You're saying it won't work?"

"In a way, yes."

The shorter boy nodded in understanding. Admittedly, it was quite true that he could have chosen a better scapegoat, one that no one would have complaints about – like Takashima Yuna, for instance. But that would have been far too boring in the already mundane life the tensai; and the last thing he needed was for another bore to be added onto his list of bores in his all-too-dreary life.

Then, he thought of Nagi. The girl had never shown a particular interest in anything except for books and was pretty much a social pariah. But if his deductions were right, there was more that went on in her head than the girl had let on, if her reactions to him were any indication. Fuji would choose solving a puzzle over tolerating his fangirls any day; and if this puzzle could entertain him AND rid him of his long-term irritation, why not?

"We'll see, Inui," a sadistic smile appeared on the tensai's face. "We'll see..."

* * *

"Oww…" the brunette groaned as she rubbed her cheek.

_(Flashback to 30 minutes ago...)_

"_Erm…What business do you have with me?" Nagi asked the towering beauty timidly._

"_You should know," the girl began, "Given the all the commotion you've caused."_

Which means it's about THAT…_ Nagi bit lower lip. "That was…a misunderstanding…"_

"_That you fell and Fuji-sama caught you, yes," Takashima cut in. "But Fuji-sama and you going out? I don't think so. Do you, girls?"_

_The mob nodded in agreement. _

"_Which is why we're here today," she continued. "We want to know what you did to Fuji-sama."_

Sama?_ Nagi felt her eyebrow twitch again. "I didn't–"_

"_Did you threaten to harm Fuji-sama?!" one of the girls interrupted._

"_No, I–"_

"_Did you use black magic to force him to obey you?!"_

"_No–"_

"_How could you do such a thing??!!"_

"..._"_

"_You can't force people against their will just because you like them!!"_

"…"

"_Fuji-sama will never like a horrible girl like you!!!"_

"…"

"_Fuji-sama won't–"_

_Takashima raised a hand, effectively cutting off the rest of the girl's sentence. _

"_Whatever it is," she said calmly. "We just want you to know that everything is just wishful thinking on your part and that Fuji-sama will never agree to go along with your silly games."_

Why doesn't anyone think its wishful thinking on HIS part??!! _Nagi mentally screamed indignantly. _

"_Which is why," the girl continued._

There's MORE??!! _Nagi thought incredulously._

"_We have decided to give you a little lesson on matters regarding Fuji-sama," Her full lips curved into a beautiful smile. But it wasn't any smile. It was one of pure evil. "Hopefully, you will remember it until graduation, or we'll be happy to administer it to you as many times as necessary for it to go into that thick skull of yours."_

_Without another word, two of the girls immediately stepped forward and grabbed both of Nagi's arms, pinning her firmly to the fence. Another girl took a step forward and raised a hand._

_Nagi squeezed her eyes shut as the hand came down on her face._

_(End of flashback)_

_Never knew anyone besides Master could hit that hard…_ Nagi mused as she continued rubbing her sore jaw.

Leaning back on the fence, Nagi let out a long sigh. She had never expected her meeting with her idol (yes, Nagi was a fangirl too, just in a different way) would come in THIS form. She had expected even less for Takashima Yuna, also known as the 'Cool Beauty' to the school population, to be that much of a Fuji fan – she'd known that the girl had been infatuated with the tensai but not the degree to which.

_That bastard!_ Nagi cursed inwardly. _Now Takashima-san's totally gotten the wrong impression of me!! If it wasn't because of his stupid declaration, I wouldn't be in this situation now! Getting hounded and hauled by fangirls…_

…_hounded?_

Then it occurred to her. Nagi's eyes widened in realization as she slowly pieced together all the little information she had of the prodigy-cum-sadist-extraordinaire and everything that had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours.

Suddenly, all the pain she had endured dissipated as a wave of fury surged through her body.

"That manipulative, crazy, bloody FOOL!" hissed the brunette, clenching her fists into tight balls.

_Fuji Shuusuke, you're soo gonna pay for this._

-CLICK-

As the saying goes, speak of the devil and he shall come.

The devil's arrival could not have been timelier indeed.

"Hello, Nagi-chan."

-BANG-

Fuji's eyes snapped wide open from shock as the fist landed on the door right beside his face.

"You." Nagi growled. "Quite the daredevil, huh?"

The boy blinked his eyes in confusion.

Nagi continued before he could answer, "Fancy using others to solve your own problems."

_So she realized. _The tensai mused. Putting on a practiced smile, he asked in mock innocence, "Whatever are you talking about?"

In a split second, the other fist landed on the other side of door with a resounding bang. Slowly, Nagi raised her head and glared at the tensai.

While a normal person would have been frozen over by the sheer intensity of the glare, Fuji, being Fuji, was unperturbed by it, which pissed the girl off quite a bit.

In a violent movement, she grabbed the boy by his collar and pulled him down. "Don't play the fool with me," she hissed dangerously in his face. "And don't even think I'll obediently be your plaything for you to toy around with."

With a last glare, she pushed the tensai away and stalked off, slamming the door behind her.

Meanwhile, a smirking Fuji was left behind on the roof. Turning around, he looked at the fist marks left on the metal door where his head had once been in between.

"Looks like your data was off, Inui," he said to himself. "She IS the best candidate for the job after all."

* * *

Kasuragi Misaki and Umezaki Hayate stared at their brown-haired friend.

"Nagi…" the former began.

"…what happened to you?" finished the latter.

"Nothing," the said girl replied monotonously.

_She's lying. _Thought Misaki.

_She's lying alright._ Hayate nodded in agreement.

"Sunburn?" Misaki suggested.

"No." denied the brunette.

"Drank super cold iced tea?" Hayate said, cocking her head to her side.

"No."

"Ran around the school?" Misaki tried again.

"No."

"Then," Hayate thought for a moment. "Got slapped?" the green-haired girl then scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Like that'd ever happen. Ahaha…"

"…" Nagi remained silent.

"Nagi-chan… don't tell me…" Misaki began.

Before the girl could utter another word, she was immediately silenced by a fearsome death glare from the subject in question. The duo could almost see hell freezing over as the temperature around them took a direct plunge to near absolute zero.

-RING-

The two girls sighed in relief as the bell for the next period saved them from facing the wrath of the demon queen.

After the confrontation with Takashima, Nagi found it exceptionally difficult to concentrate on the lesson. Not because the teacher's monotonous droning made doodling seem more appealing than paying attention, but rather, the immense effort needed to restrain the itching urge to grab a certain honey-haired tennis player and throw him out of the window was sapping all her concentration away from the lesson.

As she finished drawing her 500th circle, Nagi glanced at the tensai through her peripheral vision. Fuji was paying about as much attention as she was, and was secretly reading a book hidden under the thick chemistry textbook.

Of the few times that Nagi had watched him, she had never once saw the tensai paying the teacher any more attention than he would do to Kikumaru's random babbling. And despite that, he had never once ranked below the top ten in class. He was also great at tennis and immensely popular. He was one of those irritatingly perfect people who breezed through their lives effortlessly; the complete opposite of people like her, she thought, who had to work long and hard to achieve the desired results.

"Minamizawa-kun," a deep voice called.

Nagi looked up and saw Kurojima-sensei was shooting her a hostile stare from down the row. The gods must have been really bored, she thought, that they had decided to screw her day up for their own amusement.

"May I know what you are doing over in there?" the teacher asked sarcastically.

Some students started snickering while others looked on worriedly. The brunette remained silent and stared at the teacher.

Somewhat uncomfortable with the no-response, Kurojima-sensei cleared his throat and said to the bespectacled student. "Well, then, would you please answer the questions on the board? It's easily answerable if you have been paying attention."

Nagi glanced at the blackboard. The offensive black panel had twelve incomplete chemical equations and two empirical formula questions written on it, the former being the questions on the 'freshly given out' worksheet and the latter to be taught later in the lesson. Wordlessly, she walked up to the teacher's desk, grabbed a chalk and started writing.

"…sir?" Nagi asked.

The teacher turned around. "Yes?"

"Is this okay, sir?" the girl deadpanned.

"Ah," the teacher stared at the board in astonishment. Nagi had finished all the questions in two minutes flat –pissed equals faster writing speed–, and not a single answer was wrong. "Y-yes. You may return to your seat."

"May I go to the **toilet**, sir?" Nagi growled, annoyed that the teacher had not heard her first question.

"O-of course," Kurojima-sensei stuttered, intimidated by the death glare that the girl was unconsciously shooting him.

Giving the educator a quick bow, she shot a last glare at the tensai sitting at the other side of the classroom before making her exit, ignoring the murmurs and strange glances the class was giving her.

Fuji, unaffected by the death glare as usual, watched his new 'plaything' leave from his seat. He chuckled. _It wouldn't be half as interesting if it wasn't like this. _

* * *

**After school…**

"Nagi-chan, is something wrong?" Kakizaki Shion asked her fellow teammate.

"Does the sun rise from the East?" the girl questioned rhetorically.

The swimming team captain nodded in understanding. Placing a hand on her fellow club member's shoulder, she said sympathetically, "It must be hard on you…"

Nagi looked at the captain in surprise. All day through, she had been questioned repeatedly by everyone she knew (which was…little, actually) and they had all, to her dismay and annoyance, came to the same conclusion that her 'unrequited love for Fuji' was going to cause her a whole lot of trouble with Seigaku's female population. The brunette cast her idol a hopeful glance. Perhaps she understood her situation…

"…for not having your feelings reciprocated."

…not.

The little glimmer of hope was instantly smothered out at the last word. It took a great deal of effort for the girl to suppress the urge to bang her head on a wall. What could she have been expecting, really? Idol Number One had already turned out to be one of those rabid fangirls of Fuji's; so it wasn't really anything out of the ordinary, for that day at least, for Idol Number Two to misunderstand. Even if Kakizaki Shion usually read the girl's mind like an open book.

"But still," the captain's lips curled into an angelic smile. "Fuji-san's a really nice person, isn't he? To think he'd agree to play along with you so easily."

…_whut?_ Nagi stared at the green-eyed female questioningly. "Huh?"

"Well," Kakizaki pouted and put a finger to her chin. "He doesn't usually agree to go out with the girls who confess to him. He must've thought you were too lonely and decided to play along so that you'd have more company."

"HARH????!!!"

It was the most out-of-line reasoning Nagi had heard the whole afternoon. And that coming from the captain who knew her so well? All of a sudden drowning herself in the pool, which was just a step away, didn't seem like such a bad idea after all.

With a quick "I'm off", the brunette stalked off to the showers. Her patience had already gone miles past its limit, and she definitely was not going to tolerate anymore nonsense from anybody.

Putting on her uniform hastily, Nagi immediately made a headlong sprint out of the clubroom to her bicycle parked near the school gates. Then, summoning all the energy left in her body, she sped off on the two-wheeled contraption, desperate to get to the safe confines of the café where none of Fuji's minions could bother her.

* * *

Shizuka was changing into her work attire in the changing room, happily humming her favourite tune when she got the shock of her life. No, it wasn't that one of the waiters had burst in all of a sudden when she had just taken off her shirt. She was not expecting anyone to come in at that time; the manager had just served out her famous tarts, which meant that everyone in the café would probably be too busy taking and serving orders to come and check on their appearance. It was the rather sudden entrance of a certain frantic and disheveled fourteen-year-old, combined with her bizarre war-cry of "SAFE!" and the loud slamming of the door, that had very nearly brought her to the gates of kingdom come.

The redhead stared wide-eyed at her junior's unkempt appearance. "Nagi-chan, did something happen?"

The younger girl stared at her senior from under her messy brown locks which were covering her face. "Shizuka-senpai?"

"Y-yes?" the older girl stood frozen to the spot. _Gosh, she looks just like Sadako._ She mentally noted, recalling the terrifying antagonist in the horror movie, 'Ring'.

The brunette let out a huge sigh of relief and slumped down onto the bench, looking tired as though she had just climbed Mount Everest, crossed the Sahara desert and swam across the English Channel in one day.

Sensing that something was amiss, Shizuka quickly got dressed and hurried over to her distressed junior's side. "Nagi-chan, are you okay? You need anything?"

"Just…let me…catch…my breath…" the girl wheezed.

The redhead was about to inquire further when she was cut short by a loud bang.

"You two!" the middle-aged manager bellowed. "What in blazes are you doing making such a huge ruckus in here?! Get back to work this instant!"

"But manager, Nagi-chan is–"

"I'll be out as soon as I change, ma'am," the said girl interrupted. "Please go on ahead first, Shizuka-senpai."

Nagi then pointedly switched on her 'ignore' mode to prevent her senior from probing further.

Seeing that her junior had no intention to listen, Shizuka shook her head and exhaled a long sigh before promptly making her exit.

Upon hearing the door close, the brunette slumped down on the bench again.

_Compose yourself, Nagi. _She mentally chided herself. _This isn't the time or place for this._

Banishing away all thoughts of the sadistic tensai and his minions, Nagi swiftly changed out of her uniform into her work attire and tidied her appearance. Letting out a last sigh, she shrugged off the last tiny bit of the sense of foreboding that had been creeping on her since morning.

"Well," she said to herself aloud. "Time to work."

* * *

"Good work, people," the manager told her workers as the last of the snack-time crowd cleared out of the diner. "You've all worked hard today. Those who want some coffee or snacks, go ahead and help yourselves. Just remember to keep out of the customers' sight when you do, got it?"

"Thank you, manager," the employees said in gratitude. The employer gave her workers a satisfied nod and exited the dining area.

After-peak hours were the best times of the day for the employees in Sayoko's Tea House. It was the time when they could sit around in the air-conditioned café and enjoy their manager's specialty snacks and herbal teas.

"Okay then," Shizuka began, sipping her steaming cup of red tea. "Spill."

Nagi continued arranging the menus on the podium. "Please refrain from engaging in idle chatter during working hours."

"Nagi," the redhead said, stressing on every syllable of the girl's name as though she was addressing a three-year-old. "Everyone's worried, you know. You've been a mess since yesterday and if you're going to go on like this, you'd better have a darn good reason."

"…" The young girl remained silent, her eyes trained fixedly on the menus on the podium.

"Shizuka's right, Nagi," Takaya added, approaching the two. "Why don't you tell us? Maybe we can help you."

"We are your seniors after all," Shizuka finished.

"The two of you are only three years older than me," Nagi stated matter-of-factly. "And I already said I'm fine so can you just let the matter rest?"

"Nagi-chan–"

-CHING-

The timely arrival of a customer effectively put a stop to Shizuka's nagging. Picking up a menu, Nagi turned around to greet the customer.

"Welcome to Sayo–" Nagi stopped short mid-way through the greeting when she saw who her 'savior' was.

Lady Luck truly knew how to pull strings of Fate, only that she never pulled the correct ones.

Standing at the entrance to the café, stood two boys, a honey-haired one wearing the Seigaku uniform and another with a cross-shaped scar on the right side of his forehead.

It was Fuji. With his friend.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

To begin, I sincerely thank readers who have taken time to review my previous chapters. Thank you very much for the comments :)

I'm really sorry about it - this is one hell of a crappy chapter... I got stuck halfway and began rambling somewhere up there... Please forgive my stupidity for doing something this silly...

First things first, I'd like to disclaim all that environmental propaganda up there since I'm not very sure whether or not it's accurate. The six degrees thing is actually from the movie 'Six Degrees can Change the World'. I've never watched the movie so I'm not sure whether or not it's correct. The greenhouse gas emissions per capita thingy is one that I took from Wikipedia. It's according to the ranking of either 2005 or 2006 so I'm not very sure of its accuracy either.

'whut' is a crude way of saying 'what'. Learnt it from a comic. And for the uninitiated, Sadako is the antagonist from 'Ring'. She's the famous hair-covering-the-face ghost that crawls out of the television to drag the viewer to his or her miserable demise.

And lastly, just in case anyone misunderstood, Nagi isn't homo (Alert! Alert! This is an OC story!). She's bi, though slightly more to the homo side (60% female and 40% male).

As usual, please read and review. Thank you very much. -bows-

-Rin


End file.
